Squash & Ricotta Cast Iron Pizza

& the grand finale of wedding season!

Hi! Welcome to “good mood food” from Kale Me Maybe’s Carina Wolff. If you’ve made it here and aren’t yet a subscriber, come join! You can expect recipes, musings, and faves in your inbox every Wednesday! Paid subscribers get even more! Learn more about the paid tier of my newsletter here. You can also try a week for free!

CATCH UP!

If you’ve been following along this year, you know that Grant and I have attended many weddings. We had one almost every month starting in January through the summer, but we’ve had a bit of a break from wedding events the past couple of months. However, we are about to cap the year off strong with two more back-to-back weddings!

My sister is getting married this weekend, which obviously is a big one, and then the week after that we head up north for one of my best friends’ wedding! And then that’s it for the year! As busy as we get traveling from place to place for people’s events, I am a little sad that our wedding spree is ending. It is very fun to get dressed up and eat and drink with friends and celebrate two people being in love.

Thankfully, I have our Japan trip to look forward to as well as all the upcoming holiday celebrations! I have a lot of fun series planned for the year, and I’m going to be letting loose a little more on social media moving forward. What that means, exactly…you’ll just have to see!

THINGS I’M LOVING!

Since a cast iron skillet is essential for this week’s recipe, I thought it was only fitting to shout out my all-time favorite cast iron skillet brand, Lodge. I have both a 10-inch and 12-inch skillet, and I’ve had them for years. They hold beautifully, and they are surprisingly affordable! With proper care, they will literally last a lifetime and are an essential part of the kitchen, in my humble opinion.

How have I gone my whole life without a classic black belt? Crazy, I do not know. Thankfully, this has been resolved thanks to my recent purchase of the Emerson Belt from Anthropologie. It’s a simple leather belt with a rectangular buckle that looks cute with jeans and trousers! I love the size — not too chunky, not too thin. Very timeless.

I wanted some pearl earrings for my sister’s wedding that felt a little more modern, and these Freshwater Pearl Chain Stud Earrings from Madewell felt like a perfect match to my dress! I definitely see myself wearing these as an everyday earring as well (and right now, everything on Madewell is 25% off).

RECIPE!

It was just last week that I discovered you can make pizza at home in a cast iron skillet, and now my life is forever changed. I love baking that allows for imperfection, and baking pizza in a cast iron skillet allows you to be messy and breaks rules. Anyone can do it!

For this recipe, I used premade Trader Joe’s pizza dough for ease, but if you want to make your own, be my guest! The rest is fairly straightforward: you’ve got your basic marinara and mozzarella, but I also added in some ricotta, roasted butternut squash, sauteed onions, fresh herbs, and a drizzle of hot honey! This was lightly inspired by Dining with Skyler!

I used my 12-inch cast iron skillet for this recipe! I highly recommend getting a cast iron if you don’t have one yet — they are a cooking staple.

Squash & Ricotta Cast Iron Pizza

Ingredients (serves 2)

• 16 oz pizza dough (I used the premade dough from Trade Joe’s)

• 1 small butternut squash

• Olive oil

• 1 medium yellow onion, sliced

• ¾ cup tomato sauce

• 1 ¼ cup low-moisture shredded mozzarella

• 1/3 cup ricotta

• Fresh oregano

• Fresh basil

• Hot honey

1. Preheat oven to 400 F. Peel squash, scoop out any pulp and seeds, and cut into cubes. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper, and add the squash. Toss in a drizzle of olive oil and a small pinch of salt. Bake for 40 minutes or until squash is soft and caramelized.

2. While squash is baking, grease a large cast iron skillet so it’s completely coated in oil, including the sides. Add your pizza dough, coat in the oil, and proof for 30 minutes by letting it sit out at room temperature in the cast iron skillet.

3. While squash is baking and dough is proofing, prepare your onions. Add 1-2 tbsp olive oil to a large skillet on medium heat. Add the onions, and sauté for 10-15 minutes until browned. Set aside. 

4. When dough has finished proofing, press it out with your fingers, stretching it to the full length of the cast iron, creating a little crust by making the dough thicker around the edges. Add your tomato sauce, and spread it evenly over the dough, leaving the crust. Add the onions, and then sprinkle on the mozzarella cheese. Add the butternut squash and dollops of ricotta.

5. Turn your oven up to 525 F, and then transfer pizza to the oven. Bake for 12-15 minutes until dough has turned a nice golden brown and cheese has begun to crisp. Broil on high for a minute or two if you want that cheese extra crispy.

6. Remove from the oven, and then top with some fresh oregano and fresh basil leaves. Drizzle with hot honey, and then remove from skillet. To remove pizza, just lift up the edges and the bottom of the pizza gently with a spatula. Pizza should slide right out. Slice, and enjoy!

IN CASE YOU MISSED IT!

Last week, paid subscribers received a recipe for Gnocchi Soup with Sun Dried Tomatoes and White Beans! This one definitely hit with everyone, and it made me so happy!

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